BLACKPOOL is struggling to identify a location large enough to house Kosovan refugee communities.

Councils throughout the country are being asked to identify sites where communities of Kosovans could be housed together but, though Blackpool has more guest-beds than any other resort, that is not the kind of accommodation the Home Office is looking for, said council leader Ivan Taylor.

"They need to be kept together, not just in families but in communities, and we're struggling to identify somewhere large enough," he said. "We're keeping in close touch with the Home Office and they're keeping us informed about the situation. It's very important that any refugees who come to this country are properly cared for and properly looked after."

With a projected influx of thousands of Kosovans a week, other councils are highlighting sites like empty hospitals, military camps or schools - even a former holiday camp outside Morecambe.

Lancashire County Council, health authorities and charities are also co-ordinating accommodation efforts - but speculation that some could go to Kirkham Open Prison was unfounded.

Blackpool South MP Gordon Marsden, in talks with Home Office minister Mike O'Brien, called for any refugees or asylum-seekers who are sent here to be given proper medical, psychiatric and cultural support.

Mr Marsden said: "They come from the most traumatic circumstances, often with horrendous medical and psychiatric problems. It is very important they are not dispersed without access to expert cultural, medical and psychiatric support systems.

"I would want to be satisfied they were coming with those support systems in place - otherwise they would feel even more isolated and alienated."

When he reported this to his constituency party, member Michael Edwards thought Blackpool should welcome displaced Kosovans to its guest-houses: "Blackpool has thousands of bed and breakfasts, and vacancy signs all over the place. They would receive a proper Lancashire welcome rather than being put in an army camp," he said.

The resort had a long tradition of opening its arms to evacuees and refugees, such as during the Second World War and the 1956 Hungary crisis, he pointed out.

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